Syzygium malaccense
A bulky broadleaf tree that walls up on defense and hits hard as an invader — a strong, versatile card with a Sun-overshield bench role and a coin-paying edible fruit.
Malay Apple is a broadleaf-tree card. It is native to Oceania and South Asia, where it plays as a native wall and bench supporter, and invasive in Africa, East Asia and South America, where it becomes an attacker. It is one of the bulkier cards you will scan, with genuine armor and a useful bench trait.
The starter attack, Branch Slam, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, hitting for 34 as a native and 37 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Gap Capture, comes at level 25: it seizes a fallen giant's light for +5 ATK, kept for the rest of the match. The advanced attack, Forest Fire, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun and deals 34 native / 37 invasive — but note it burns the foe and its own bench, so use it carefully when you have benched allies to protect. No move carries an initiative rider.
Its trait schedule keeps two always-on traits. Buttress Roots arrives at level 10 and makes the tree immune to Bind — nothing can pin it in place. Network stacks on at level 68: while this tree is benched, it projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active, backing up its Sun once the base bar runs dry. Network works on any nativity, so an invasive Malay Apple supports the bench just as a native one does. Both traits arrive at full strength. It does not carry the Mycorrhiza bench-heal — its support role is the Sun overshield, not healing.
A tree is not a climber, so it takes no Moss Pole. Its standout use is as a Network carrier on the bench, feeding your active Sun; a Mulch amendment boosts that Sun overshield, and a Calcium/Magnesium amendment stacks flat DEF on an already firm card. Lean defensive when native, and toward attack when invasive.
At the snapshot level 40, where every move is unlocked, it reads HP 103 / ATK 22 as a native and HP 89 / ATK 32 as an invasive — a clear attacker step-up in ATK. Its DEF is already firm at 28, well above the soft categories. Retreat costs 16 Sun. Opening initiative is 32 and sustained SPD is 34. As a native it gains the +15% HP cushion and the benched overshield; as an invasive it hits harder but pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging attack (scaling as it levels) and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out.
By the cap Malay Apple hardens into a real wall: DEF climbs to 66 on wood density, with HP swelling to 190 (native) and ATK reaching 38 native / 65 invasive. Retreat rises to 33 Sun as it roots in, and its tempo has sunk to about one percent of cap — the mature tree wins fights on bulk and armor, not on turn order.
As a broadleaf tree it is a Competitor in the succession wheel: strong (×1.5) into Ruderal categories (annual-forb, grass, aquatic, bulb), resisted (×0.667) by Specialists (succulent, conifer, fern, epiphyte), and neutral against other Competitors and Weird categories.
Malay Apple is a strong, flexible card. Played native it is a bulky wall that also carries the bench, projecting Sun through Network and refusing to be Bound. Played invasive it becomes a heavy attacker — but the bench-burning Forest Fire and the Faustian self-damage mean you should watch your own team's HP. It is edible with a resolved fruit part, so Phosphorus (the fruit match) pays ×1.25 coins, while other nutrients bank ×1.25 XP. Its bulk makes it power-favored from very early: it leans on speed only until about level 18, then its armor and attack take over for the rest of its life.
Leveling trades speed for power. A plant’s tempo (SPD + INI, the turn-order edge) fades as it grows, while its power (HP + ATK + DEF, net of the rising Sun cost to retreat) climbs. The crossover is the level where power overtakes tempo: below it the plant is a fast skirmisher, above it a heavyweight. Shown for each stance this plant can actually hold — native adds a HP cushion, invasive an attack edge, neutral neither — with the card at its crossover and fully grown at Lv 100.